From AIDSmap.com, Gus Cairns reports on new data presented by Manon Ragonnet-Cronin and colleagues from Edinburgh University at the 2017 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) last week.

A genetic analysis of a large database of people with HIV in the UK in care shows that 18% of men with HIV who claim to be exclusively heterosexual in fact belong to clusters of linked infections that consist only of men.
This provides a minimum figure for the proportion of men with HIV in the UK who are what the researchers call “undisclosed men who have sex with men (MSM)”. It is a minimum figure because other men who caught HIV through sex with another man may be in mixed-gender cluste

Michael Bouldin on Milo: "... sexist, transphobic, racist, pick what you wish from the long catalogue of human cruelties, he will likely embrace it this very instant, already has, or will at some future time of greater convenience."

The question arises – I suppose – whether Milo should be able to rely on the good offices of Gay, Inc℠ or of the broader velvet mafia in media and culture. We do tend to defend our own, even if only for the reason that they are indeed our own. Do we, more specifically gay white men, do so for conservatives as reliably as for liberals?
I propose that this is the wrong question to ask.
My guess would be that Milo won’t be afforded the warm embrace of Ellen or Anderson Cooper, let al

Megan DePutter: "Well-intended concerns about consent and capacity may lead to withholding information or efforts to restrict or manage sexual behaviour in ways that may be inappropriate."

Terrence Higgins Trust has partnered with Alzheimer Scotland to offer a course on Sexual Health and Dementia (for course details see bottom of post) in our new Learning Centre. Sexual health needs might not be the first thing you think of when it comes to supporting people with dementia. But sexual health is important for everyone. Here are a few reasons why we at Terrence Higgins Trust Scotland and Alzheimer Scotland felt it was important to create a course on Sexual Health and Dementia.
1.

The UK's FS magazine says: "When it comes to HIV, stigmatisation and discrimination are rife in gay-land, now more than ever."

This article by Mario | @Londondiaries2 previously apperared at FS, here.
Every day in the UK, about ten gay/bisexual men are diagnosed with HIV. About 11% of HIV-positive gay men are on meds but not undetectable. You would think that these figures alone would help the NHS gods see the light and work towards an end to the PrEP saga.
Unless you’ve been living in isolation for the past year, by now you will know that there is a pill out there which, if taken daily, within seven days can p

French poster campaign promoting U = U message is met with vandalism, complaints and possible prosecution. Based on a report in Marianne by Thomas Vampouille, which was translated by Denis LeBlanc

The campaign, designed by TBWA\Paris, uses black and white visuals, photographed by Mathieu César. - Aides
Aides, the French association fighting HIV, was summoned to the police station after the public prosecutor of Laval (a town in western France) found that three complaints were admissible. The complaints denounced the "broadcasting of a violent or pornographic message" on the posters of its latest prevention campaign, according to a January 10 report by Thomas Vampouille on the French ne

From The Advocate, Tyler Curry: "The same kind of fear that keeps us from coming out as gay keeps many of us from coming out as HIV-positive."

The full article by Tyler Curry can be read at The Advocate, here.
Before I sprouted out of the closet as a little gay sapling, my mother had never met a single homosexual person in her life. And in the suffocating Southern Christian confines of Texas, her limited perception was open to the most horrific creative interpretation. The nightmares of evil drag queens and insidious perverts quickly faded away, however, once her son told her that he liked boys.
The majority of gay men know how

Bouldin sees Trump as an opportunistic infection of the US political system
Last week, I went to a reading and book signing at Manhattan’s Roosevelt House, a townhouse on the Upper East Side that today belongs to the City University of New York but was once the Manhattan residence of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The reading was of How To Survive A Plague, the monograph about the AIDS crisis authored by David France, who also directed the Oscar-nominated documentary of the same name.

275 new infections per day expected; heterosexual sex will soon top intravenous drug use as the main means of infection. From the New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Quietly, the number of Russians who have received a positive HIV diagnosis passed the one million mark this year. There is, however, little indication that the government will commit adequate resources to stem the acceleration of the virus from high-risk groups into the general population. About 850,000 Russians carry HIV and an additional 220,000 have died since the late 1980s, said Vadim Pokrovsky, the longtime head of the Moscow-based Federal AIDS Center, who e

GNP+ reports global key population networks stand in solidarity with U.S. activists

We, the Bridging the Gaps alliance of global key population constituency networks, represented by the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD) and the Global Forum on Men Who Have Sex With Men and HIV (MSMGF), recognize that we are at a pivotal moment in our fight for the human rights of key populations and people living wi

"Our new president is smirking at his inauguration." Mark S. King on the nightmare that won't go away.

I am on my feet at the Thanksgiving table, and my fists are slamming into the linen napkins. Silverware is quaking, pottery is rattling. The force of a particularly hard blow to the tabletop sends a dinner roll catapulting from the bread basket.
My screams are borrowed from post-election protest marches. They are deafening and unending. Fight him. Reject hate. Protect ourselves.
Surrounding the table are members of my family, some red and some blue. They pay me no attention. They are chattin